At a relatively early point in the tournament, reigning European champions Iceni have a very important game on their hands. Besting Seagulls in their pool and losing to Fury were results without serious surprise. An early wobble in the former was corrected for a confident win, and whilst some were frustrated by the Fury game, the Londoners gained valuable experience from the matchup and had a lot of fun whilst they were at it – both being crucial in such a rare opportunity. Standing in the way nexte was Japan’s Swampybarg – a largely unknown team for Iceni.

Sean Colfer watched Reading and RusMixed face off in a crucial pool game.

Reading Ultimate have approached this tournament with a professionalism to be admired. They’ve been preparing a team for several years, they’ve practised together extensively and they scout their opponents in great detail. That has all come together nicely for them in Cincinnati as they sat with three wins in three ahead of their match with RusMixed, the Russia champions who beat Black Eagles at Talampaya. RusMixed lost to Wild Card, but otherwise had been in great form, topping GRUT 14-13 earlier in the pool. The winner of this match would have the inside track on second in the pool, though if Reading won they’d have a chance to top it against Wild Card.

Matching up against the US teams is the main hurdle for every other team at WUCC. Sean Colfer watched Chevron take on Austin superteam Doublewide.

Chevron had a good first day at WFDF 2018 WUCC, winning both of their games and setting themselves up for a huge game first thing against Doublewide. The Texans, second seed at this tournament, had a very similar day and entered the game unbeaten too.

Chevron came out on offence, and slotted it in pretty efficiently. Both teams did so until Chevron managed to get a turn at 3-2, Issa Dualeh finding Jake Aspin for the first break of the game. Chevron were pumped, and they were loud. They had been building for this game and this environment all year; they were desperate to test themselves against a team of Doublewide’s quality and show off their own.

Glasgow, starting second bottom in group F began the day with a 15-8 win over second seeded Freakshow from Singapore. This made things exciting. Sesquidistus, from France and also in this pool showed their hand at Windmill, and were known to be beatable by the Scots. The french pushed the pool leaders Crash to 15-13 in the first round of play, which altogether rendered Glasgow’s upcoming matchup as surprisingly human despite both the high seeding maple leaf next to their name. Whilst all Canadian and North American teams undeniably arrive with inherited respect at WUCC – a hand up before the game has even started – the narratives of this pool were starting to look like things might not be so simple, and Glasgow would have a decent chance.

Sean Colfer was keen to see how Revolution, reigning US Open champions and hot tip for the Women’s title here in Cincinnati, would perform against Atletico, the reigning European champions and themselves no slouches.

This was a hotly anticipated game, not least because it was the first look at Medellin’s Revolution against a European power. Atletico snatched the EUCF title away from Iceni last season with an excellent and precise long game, something that the Colombians will surely face as they get further into this tournament.

Sean Colfer watched this match up at the top of Mixed pool H to see how SMOG, one of the UK’s best teams, matched up against an elite Japanese team.

There are few elite teams so shrouded in mystery at this tournament as Café de Luida. They are the Japanese Mixed champions, we know, but otherwise little is available about them. Even their name was a mystery until it was explained that it’s based on a game called Dragon Quest, where a bar called Bar Luida is the place that players can gather and chat. The founders of the team wanted to engender that same atmosphere, hence the name.

Sean Colfer watched Nice Bristols in their tough first game against Atlanta Ozone.

Atlanta Ozone entered this game as the fourth overall seed, while Nice Bristols were 36th. The gulf in class between the teams, though, was nowhere near that large. Bristols had scouted Ozone through video of some of their games in the USA and had developed a game plan to deal with the strengths of their opponents. Plans are tougher to execute in practice than on paper, though, when your opponents are this talented.